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New Zealand Rugby congratulates Women's Sevens Sisters

allblacks.com 20 May 2013 IRB

New Zealand put an exclamation mark on the end of their IRB Women’s Sevens World Series title win by winning The Netherlands tournament in Amsterdam this morning.

The New Zealand Women’s Sevens team secured their hold on the four-part Series after beating Spain 14 – 5 in their quarterfinal. Accurate passing and powerful running saw the ‘Sevens Sisters’ put Russia away 24 -10 in the semifinal before beating Canada 33 - 24 in the Final.

The Final against Canada was an intensely physical encounter with top-quality sevens rugby that saw a total nine tries in the match.

Canada dotted down first and led for most of the Final until New Zealand’s trademark come-back-from-behind attack led by the Series’ highest try-scorer Portia Woodman, whose try nudged the New Zealanders out to their first lead of the game, just three minutes from full time. Click here to read more match data.

New Zealand Rugby Union Steve Tew congratulated the New Zealand Women's Sevens team on their World Series and Amsterdam tournament victories.

“We are delighted for (Coach) Sean Horan and the team. They have worked incredibly hard, demonstrating a great commitment to their preparation for this campaign and they thoroughly deserve the Series title.

“It is a real mark of the strength of this team that they were able to maintain that high standard to the end of this tournament in The Netherlands.

“This is a significant boost as we look to build our way to the 2016 Olympics, including next month’s Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament in Moscow.”

Coach Sean Horan said: “I am incredibly proud of the girls. This was a tough tournament with testing conditions for us but they kept the pressure up and came away with the results. There’s a lot to be said for the strong culture within the team and that’s been a key feature of this team.”

Huriana Manuel said: “We’ve worked really hard for this and I’m really proud of the way everyone performed and dug deep to the end. We’re thrilled to take both the World Series and this tournament.”

Woodman was the highest try of the Series with 21 tries which also put her at the top of the points scoring table across the four tournaments.

New Zealand Referee Chelsea Gurr had an impressive tournament which saw her earn the whistle duties for the Amsterdam Final.